Having collected a large amount of highly valuable ecological data, the time had come for our researchers to get together and set up strategies how to best use this wealth of information creating high-quality joint scientific publications. Therefore, on the 9th & 10th of January 2018, fourteen colleagues from all five STACCATO partner countries, who were directly involved in the fieldwork and/or are in charge of data analyses and paper writing, met up in Uppsala, Sweden, for an intensive two-day workshop.

After summarizing the current status of available field data and setting up a firm schedule when complete datasets of each collected species group will be available, the group went on to develop concrete research questions and analytical approaches forming the backbone of future publications. The primary focus is on creating joint synthesizing transnational papers (i.e. papers that aim at answering general overarching questions and include analyses on a broad range of species groups), before addressing more specialized topics (e.g. papers based on data from a single country or a single group of organisms).

Here a sneak peek into few basic ideas of some forthcoming publications…

• Multitrophic biodiversity response to disturbance in grasslands
• The role of grasslands for biodiversity in agroecosystems
• Invertebrate-driven decomposition in agroecosystems is defined by land use structures

… and more.

Stay tuned for updates follow us at @STACCATO_EU!